Today's work

I have only one piece to show for a long day's work today for our 75 for $75 project.  Though I must admit I got lots of other stuff done.  This little study was a real pain to photograph.  When it's dry, I'll scan it, but in the meantime, this is not an entirely accurate photo.  The background in the painting is darker.   The bird is a male broad-tailed hummingbird - I have many of them at my feeders at this time of year. 

I've mentioned often on my blog that my reason for the 75 for $75 project is to get better at painterly bird studies.  Someone asked, 'what exactly is a bird study'?    What I mean by bird study, is a sketch of a bird in oil....no background, just capturing the essence of the bird.  Much the way I would paint a bird plein air if it would stay still for me.   I had a second piece almost finished today - a lesser goldfinch, but the painting did not fit my idea of a 'spontaneous, painterly bird study', so I turped it out and saved the panel for tomorrow.

It's also important to me that I not compete with the eight galleries that show my work, so I've chosen something that I don't paint for galleries.  My blog has a list of the galleries that carry my work.  If you'd like to see my 'regular' work, please check out my galleries' websites. 

Adele Earnshaw - Broad-tailed Hummingbird

$75

5" x 7"  oil on panel
SOLD

Shane won't have a piece for today.  He's up to his ears in his illustration work, which is a good place to be, so I won't nag him.